Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Wii U

Hey. Hey you. Yes, YOU. You're in luck. Nintendo’s new Wii U console was made just for you. Well, you and every other sentient being in the universe. Yup, Nintendo is continuing its push to appeal to as wide a demographic as possible. Forget the giddy whispers of a 'core' console for 'core' gamers. The Wii U is the Swiss army knife of gaming: something for everyone.

Ah yes, the Wii U. A Genuinely nifty bit of kit, despite the rubbish name. It's just a shame Nintendo made such a colossal balls-up of introducing it to the world at their E3 conference. Not even the tech savvy journos that comprised the audience seemed to know what Nintendo had just revealed. Inevitably, Twitter exploded in a frenzy of confused tweets. Is the Wii U a new console or simply another Wii peripheral? Wait...what? The Wii U controller can be used in conjunction with the Wii's original controllers? Huh?

After much uncertain deliberation it became clear that the Wii U is indeed a brand new console. Thing is, Nintendo only revealed the console's controller, NOT THE ACTUAL CONSOLE ITSELF. And get this. At the end of the conference Satora Iwata had to tweet a pic of himself holding both the console and the controller 'to help with any confusion' (see below). Total Madness.

Thing is, the absence of the console wasn't a glaring oversight, it was an informed decision. You see, the final form of the console has yet to be decided upon. In fact ,when pressed on the issue of the Wii U's techinical capabilites, Nintendo's CEO Reggie Fils-Aime, dismissed the actual console as 'just a box'.

Tit.

So, what DO we know about the Wii U? Well, it has a sensible amount of under-the-bonnet grunt (an area in which the underpowered Wii suffered from its inception) which means it'll be able to play games like Batman Arkham City and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon. So even though Nintendo hasn’t announced any detailed specs, the Wii U is going to be competent within the current scene, it’ll be able to do what the other consoles can, as well as all the kooky Nintendo stuff on top of that. Don’t know about you, but I’m sold.